1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recording digital broadcasts on an exchangeable storage medium, and to the exchangeable storage medium therefor. In particular, the invention relates to a digital broadcast recording apparatus and method for automatically recording desired broadcast contents on an exchangeable storage medium such as a SD card, a memory stick, a MD, or the like without operating a recording start button, especially for efficiently recording the broadcasting contents on the exchangeable storage medium, and it also relates to the exchangeable storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been developed a music reproducing device for a vehicle that receives therein a recordable medium such as a MD, a SD memory card, a memory stick or the like and which permits reproduction of data stored in the recordable medium. In the future, it is anticipated with the spread of digital broadcasts for a vehicle that there will appear a recording and reproducing apparatus for a vehicle which records the contents of a vehicle digital broadcast on the above-mentioned medium and which enables reproduction thereof.
If the vehicle recording and reproducing apparatus requires an operation from a user to select and record desired pieces of music one by one from the digital broadcasts, the recording process becomes complex and thereby fails to make full use of the functionality of the recording apparatus. That is, the recording and reproducing apparatus for the vehicle requires the ability to record desired broadcast contents by a simple operation.
A present portable, exchangeable storage medium that is attachable and detachable, such as the memory card, the memory stick, or the like, has a memory capacity on the order, at most, of 100 MB. When a compression technique such as MP 3 is applied to Japanese music to store the compressed music within this capacity, the number of musical pieces or songs recorded therein is about ten at most. Even if the capacity is increased hereafter, generalization of video contents and the like will be brought about at the same time, and therefore it is easily estimated that the number of songs that are able to be recorded will not change much. In short, the vehicle recording and reproducing apparatus also requires the ability to efficiently record the desired broadcast contents.